Summertime…

…and the livin’ is easy. Or hectic. My summer has been hectic. Lots of fun…but hectic. Each year my “summers off” have become shorter and shorter. And I try to cram as much into my summer off as I can manage!

We went here:

and here:

and here…where we saw little peeks of snow on the ground in July:

Then we went here:

and here:

We came and took MiniStitcher and MarioFan here:

We were home for a few days and went here:

and here:

where we saw this:

and this:

Two thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–I loved seeing all of the “stuff”. But, I wonder, do we really need to see Jimi Hendrix’s family couch? Nothing better to display?

And even though I’m assuming that Jim Morrison wasn’t always the Lizard King, I could not wrap my brain around him being a Cub Scout.

I’m guessing you can see why the blog posts have been slim pickins lately. Not much sewing, quilting or stitching going on. But back to work now. I think I need a vacation from my vacation.

Who thinks this stuff up?

How do you go from this

to this?

Who looks at a mountain and says, “I think I’d like to see George Washington’s face on that mountain.  And as long as I’m carving, why don’t I just add Tom and Teddy and Abe so George won’t be lonely.”  When I look at a mountain, I see rocks and not faces.  But Gutzon Borglum saw faces and went to work to be sure that we saw them also.  Some well placed explosives, drills, lots of time , blood, sweat and tears and there are four president’s faces looking back at you from the side of a mountain.

I get the thought process…the creative vision.  What I don’t get  is the actual process.  I don’t get how you look at this huge expanse of rock and say if I put X pounds of dynamite in this little, drilled hole and press the plunger, I’ll have Washington’s nose big enough to see it in Wyoming.  Well, maybe not Wyoming, but you get the idea.  Someone had the patience and vision to take a small sculpture and reproduce it on a grand scale.

Aren’t we quilters similar to Borglum?  Obviously, not on such a grand scale….although who wouldn’t want to see a quilt the scope of Mount Rushmore?  I think if I had time I could piece it and still have stash left over!  But we are very much like the sculptor.  We take a piece (or pieces) of fabric and we see a quilt.  And we all have our own vision.  I know that I could show a piece of fabric to ten different quilters and see ten different visions.  Some would see flowers, some would see faces, some would see landscapes and some would see abstract shapes.  We would all see something different…something uniquely “me”.  And we would create something that may be similar to something else; (I adhere to the theory that there is very little that’s new under the quilting sun.)  but at the same time, something that speaks to us alone.  And the best part is that we can do it without one stick of dynamite!  Unless we want to…….

And here it is….

…my paltry haul from my trip west.  Can you believe this?  Two shops and just this!  My second stop was at the Quilter’s Store in Sedona, Arizona where I found these.  Really nice shop also…just not my “stuff”.  But if you like batiks, this place is for you!  Nice ladies and great service.  I also purchased another pattern that didn’t make the team photo above because it had to be ordered.  It nearly beat me home!  I had it in less than a week.

The shop is for sale.  I told my husband that since he’s retired and I will be shortly we should buy it.  Go home, sell the house and buy the shop.  It would give us something to do and we could live in drop-dead gorgeous Sedona!  Sounds like win/win to me.  He just turned the radio up louder!  Go figure…..